June Work weekend, 2012

Alumni started arriving at camp about 7:30 am. Some alumni had been in camp over night with the Order of the Arrow vigil ceremony. They had been up most of the night but got a big breakfast and were ready to go. By 8:30 am the parking lot counted several trucks and trailers and work was under way. A work crew was at Mt Ellen doing some finish detail work on that cook shack, gravel was being leveled for the new quartermaster shed, the dumpster surround was being retrofitted and lean-to bunks were being re-aligned. It was a beautiful sunny day, spirits were high and progress was being made hand over fist. The quartermaster shed material had been delivered earlier in the week and Bill Baron and Brian Allen had pre-fabbed the side walls in advance. Crews organized into different work groups. While the deck was being built, the doors were being built and the siding was getting stained. John Spaeth and Mike Frazer, two new alumni recruits were in camp preparing lunch. John is a culinary student in college and with Mike's help put out a 4th of July style barbeque for all the workers. Grilled chicken, potatoe salad, baked beans, corn and big time brownies for desert. Talk of taking a nap was ignored and we went back to work. The walls were up and next came the roof. We had cutters running the chop saw, we had siding pros closing in the walls and door hangers fine tuning the hinges. By late afternoon all hands were working on the shed and dumpster surround. The sleepless workers began to slow down around 5:00 pm and a few members had to head out. Supper came at 6:17 pm. Pizza by the pound, salad and left overs from lunch were all on the menu. We ate and held the annual meeting and then raced the day to get the metal roof on before the mosquetos killed us and or darkness ruled. At 9:15 pm we declared the day a huge success and packed up with the last of the alumni leaving camp about 10:00 pm.